Juno Reactor’s Ben Watkins on the 1997 Goa trance classic Bible of Dreams: "What really gave the album its sound … – MusicRadar

Trance and techno pioneers Juno Reactor began life as aloose and lively art collective. Head honcho Ben Watkins fondly remembers the time he and his wife drovea surface-to-air missile past Big Ben as an anti GulfWar protest.As the 90s soldiered on, he and his ever-evolving lineup focused more on the music, turning out three albums that pushed the envelope for the electronic music genre, before work began ontheir masterpiece Bible Of Dreams.

The album was pieced together in Watkins Dickensian warehouse over by Shoreditch, a studio space made sonically perfect thanks to a recently installed system that was hand-crafted by sound expert (and now Watkins label boss) Robert Trunz.

That changed it all, Watkins says. He put in a really big Raindirk Symphony desk, which is really quite specialised. Robertactually first started making desks for Deep Purple, andwhat he built rattled the whole building.That desk was amazing. It had this really beautiful EQ. And when you pushed the bass end, it just purred at you. That made a massive impact on the music we could make, because suddenly we had a three-dimensional sound in the studio.

Watkins began to create bass-heavy, 360 soundscapes, pullinglive African percussion, Middle Eastern influences, livevocalists, rock guitars, and analogue drums into the mix.Developing themes across the albums tracks were inspired bythe concepts of dreams, death, religion and sharks, all whilefinding space for sampling actual Formula 1 racing cars, alongside dialogue snippets from movies including Ed Wood (1994) andThe Ten Commandments (1956).

It would be deep-dive dance music, out on the fringes of the underground, with a shattering sense of tribal rhythm and an emotional depth unlike anything else on the scene at the time.

It was around that time everyone started saying things like Goa trance, says Watkins. But, we didnt really like those sort of pigeonholes. And we didnt like the idea of being labelled.Me, [and band members] Mike [Maguire] and Stephen [Holweck] just didnt want to have a blueprint. We just tried tomake the music that we wanted to hear.

My studio was like a huge warehouse over by Shoreditch. Robert Trunz came in and added a massive Raindirk Symphony desk and massive monitors with nine 12 bass drivers each side. Wed got rid of the Atari ST, and were on an early Macintosh tower, running everything through some sort of MIDI device. It was all Cubase. Like, 2.0. Ive always used Cubase since the very beginning.

A lot was arranged in the computer, but we used to jam a lot on the desk. We had certain amounts of automation, but were always hands on deck, come the mix. I had a Korg MS-20, but my favourite was the Mono/Poly. Then aRoland MC-202, 303. The Korg DW-8000 and EX-8000. And wed hire an Oberheim keyboard. But, generally, it was those things and samplers.

I had a couple of Akai 1000s. Or, maybe a newer one? And some Oberheim Matrix 1000s. And we also had the Cyclosonic 3D panner, forspatial effects, and then 24-track tape machines.

Ive got this sort of imaginary musical cooker where I put ideas inwhen theyre just sounding a bit dodgy. I just chuck them in there and leave them until theyre ready for pulling out again and working on. This was one of those. I originally started the track with a guy called Xavier [Morel], whos aDJ. And it was a pretty well, it wasnt that good.

I think Xavier got taken to prison for six months, which sort of allowed him a bit of respite. And, in that time, I came across the story of this 18-year old French girl who was murdered by an English truck driver. And, when they found her body, the father wrote on a tree, Jardin De Cecile. Which means, The Garden of Cecile.

I had just had my daughter around this time in 96 my daughter was born. And it really affects you, when youve just had akid. Your emotional well is like, times 100. So it really affected me.

After that, I thought, Okay, lets take this track out of the cooker, andmanipulate it into like a sonic garden of Cecile. And that was the story behind it. And there are other writers on there as well [Mike Maguire and Paul Jackson].

This features [South African conga king] Mabi Thobejane. He had areally big life story, and he was an amazing person to be around. When he was 17, he was out doing live shows with Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and those sorts of artists.

We met through Robert Trunz, who recorded him for his jazz label, M.E.L.T. 2000. He took me on a trip to Namibia, where we filmed and recorded the bush people, and spentanother two weeks down inthedesert.

Mabia started telling me about how he wrote tracks. And it seemed very similar to the way I do, which is very much about images, or stories, and theres always a fixed element to it. Its not just about, Oh, lets have a good time. And Conga Fury pretty much came out of that. We said, Lets do a song about the dreams ofthe Bushman or Sand People.

He was an amazing percussionist. And before that, percussion was like, things that white guys did, badly. Like T-Rex, and you know, people just sort of seal-flapping on congas.

I was working far more with real acoustic drums, at the time. We had Nick Burton on percussion and drum kit. He was great on this [track]. Hes a great drummer and had arockabilly band called Westworld. But, he had great rhythmic sense. And he had really good electronic sense, as well. So, on things like GodIs God, were very much workingwith him.

This also features Natacha Atlas on vocals. She was a friend of Nicks, because I think Nick was working with someone else from her band, Transglobal Underground. And he said, Lets get Natacha Atlas down. And so she came down. And she really looked like Elizabeth Taylor. She looked beautiful. And she had alittle wheelie bag, because she hadnt got anywhere to live at the time. She was always going to different houses to stay in. So, shebrought in her wheelie bag of everything she had. And then she came into the vocal booth, and it just sounded amazing.

God Is God has been quite atransitional track for Juno Reactor, because of the much slower BPM difference as well. It was never a hit. But it, you know, like a lot of Junos stuff, spread through, in a sort of below-the-radar type of way.

I just remember working with Paul Jackson, who was one of the writers, and him being so precise on this track. It ended up taking a great deal of long nights to get this one done. It was OK, though. I mean, we had my studio in which Robert Trunz had installed this amazing gear. Stuff like a huge Raindirk Symphony desk, and monitors with all these bass drivers.

He was CEO of M.E.L.T. 2000, which was the umbrella company which ran the Blue Room record label that put the album out, as well. We also had 24-track tape machines, so everything was going down to tape with the Cyclosonic 3Dpanner, which we used to have tohire in every day for like 100 orsomething. And then, when all of these sorts of panners became useless, Irang up FX Rentals and got one forlike 120, and now theyre worththousands!

Like a lot of the tracks, this is like eight minutes long. I mean, Idont know why writing tracks forthat amount of time was so important to us. But, with the sort of longer tracks you got a better story.So, a lot of the thinking, in those days, was to have a longer intro. Then youd get into it.Thenyoud fire it up, and then hit acrescendo.

This is also Mabi, again, on percussion. And, I think I got my old mate Pete Glenister down on guitar.I did some guitars, too. Stephane [Holweck] is the bass player. And he played like electric bass on it as well. Its all very swampy swampy rock.

Ive always liked that sort of crossing over between dance and rock. Yeah, the first two albums we did are not really doing that. And [third album] Luciana, didnt haveit,either.Before I was working in Juno, Iwas in the band The Flowerpot Men. That was electronics and cello, voice, guitars. Then I was in Sunsonic, which was the extension of The Flowerpot Men, with acoustic instruments and electronics. So, Ive always liked that. Because whether its singers or players, you just get so much more onto tape. You get an emotional content.

Well, this is based on the stories from the Japanese folklore tales of the princess and the moon. And Ihad done a track called Samurai before [Hypnotic Records, 1996]. And Japan was really quite an important birthing pool for JunoReactor.

We did a lot of things there, way before we did anything outside. And that was a nod to them, really. And Iliked the story. It has great percussion by Nick Burton, as well. Ithink its alot of his knowledge as a drummer coming through, but Ithink its all pretty much electronic.

That desk was really amazing. When you pushed the bass end, itjust purred at you

Its got a darkness to it. I think, maybe at times, Im a bit Gothic. Isort of [insert] myself into that world quite easily. Although you dont get that much Gothic stuff onJuno, but I quite like that darkness in tracks.

And theres a credit to Yapo. That was one of the guys in our family in Japan. And he did thevoiceovers. I was always recording stuff. Ive been doing that for years, just with aZoom or tape recorders. I once recorded an Indian singer in a taxi.

Thats me and Johann [Bley]. And Iremember thinking that I wanted toget Formula 1 cars recorded. SoIwent up to [UK racetrack] Silverstone, I think.I got an invite from, the Marlboro team [Ferrari]. And, I think at the time, Schumacher was racing for them. But the majority of the carsthat I used were actually the Benetton ones.

Besides the cars, I think theres a bit of the Johnny Depp film, EdWood. So those had to give the record company a big task to get thelicences through; all of this stuff. Like the Charlton Heston samples weused in God Is God from The Ten Commandments.

We just love sharks, and the protection of sharks. I mean, generally, the whole protection of thesea. The sea and the marine life,globally, has been quite a big thing for us.What really gave this track, andthe whole album, its sound, washaving such a great desk. I still love working on analogue desks now. Whether working with samplers or live percussion, it really added anewsound.

It was like another member of the band, really. I think it gave us abig advantage over other bands. And I think thats why the album stillsounds okay now.We had great engineers as well. Greg Hunter was there. And there was Richard Edwards. They took tracks to a new level, you know?

I could not have mixed them aswell as they did. Ive got proof, because Ive got some of the mixes Idid for demos. They taught me alotabout mixing. And there was mastering by Kevin Metcalfe. Ive been working with him since the 80s. The first record he mastered was David Bowies Hunky Dory, so we were in good hands.

Trance pioneers Juno Reactor have announced that thatll release a 5CD box set, through Edsel Records, containing their first five landmark albums. Entitled Imagination, Use It as A Weapon, and retailing 35, each one comes with an exclusive art print, signed by Ben Watkins himself.

Meanwhile, the seminal Bible Of Dreams gets a standalone limited edition heavyweight double vinyl pressing release viaDemon Records. Both will be available from March 15th, with more Juno Reactor releases and live shows planned for the rest of 2024.

For all the latest news on their mesmerising live shows and any new and forthcoming releases, head to the official website.

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Juno Reactor's Ben Watkins on the 1997 Goa trance classic Bible of Dreams: "What really gave the album its sound ... - MusicRadar